2017-08-31

Video above published Jul 30, 2017, by TopBuzz. Toutiao's (domain: toutiao.com) parent company, Bytedance (domain: bytedance.com) owns TopBuzz (domain: topbuzz.com) in the US and Brazil. TopBuzz is "the English-language equivalent of Toutiao, both of which make use of user profiling and algorithms to recommend content to users."

In January 2017, Toutiao acquired Flipagram (domain: flipagram.com), the video creation app with more than 200 million creators sharing video stories by pairing the music with personal photos and videos.

After Toutiao's Series D Financing Round at the end of 2016, with investments worth 1 billion USD by Sequoia Capital, CCB International and other institutions, Toutiao is now reported to be valued at more than 11 billion US dollars, which is more than 20 times its $500m reported valuation in 2014--wikipedia.org.

Toutiao is more than just an app: In China it has a partnership with Chinese ecommerce platform JD.com that enables users to browse and purchase directly on JD.com the products featured within the Toutiao app. It has also made a strategic investment in Imaginechina, a leading Chinese press and stock commercial licensing agency. Outside of China, it has ventured into Japan, the US, Brazil and the Southeast Asian region, and has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and New York. In October 2016, Toutiao invested in India’s local language app Dailyhunt’s 25 million dollars in its series D funding round. Toutiao has a controlling stake of Indonesian local-language news app Babe.

Social Pioneers: The story of App TouTiao

Video above published Oct 6, 2014, by CCTVnews n/k/a CGTN: "The growth of the IT industry in China has created new opportunities for young entrepreneurs.That has meant a virtual revolution, with new ideas and products challenging traditional business models.One such product is TouTiao. “You only receive news that you care about,” explains Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of customized news application.Within just 90 days of its launch in 2012, the app had acquired nearly 10 million subscribers. That number has grown to 170 million as of Oct. 5, 2014.

"The key to this success is the simplicity of the concept behind TouTiao. The app essentially works as a news aggregator. However, it goes beyond mere aggregating. It analyzes user preferences through their social media accounts and then delivers customized news.“It’s meaningless to go through the massive information online. A personalized reading platform saves time for users," explains Zhang Yiming.And his contemporaries seem to echo that sentiment.Zhang Peng, founder of GeekParka, a popular tech community in Beijing, says that reading habits of people are changing and growing fragmented.

"One of the key drivers of this change in reading habits is technology. By the end of this year, China is expected to be home to over 500 million smartphone users. This means three out of 10 smartphone users in the world will be Chinese, according to a recent report by market research institute eMarketer. It is within this context that Zhang Peng believes that it is increasingly important for content providers and deliverers to focus on getting "the right information to the right person.” In such an environment, apps like TouTiao seem poised to flourish.

"Copyright controversy: However, that success would not necessarily come easy. In fact, TouTiao has had its fair share of controversies ever since it was launched. Considering that it does not generate content but only aggregates it, in its early days, several traditional media outlets had raised concerns about copyright violations.

"The controversy was around some of the content published by TouTiao, which was linked to trans-coded webpages (deep linking), instead of taking users back to the original content provider's homepage. That led to an uproar, with media originations claiming that it was a violation of their copyrights.In response, TouTiao decided not to adopt a confrontationist approach and offered to tweak its systems and work in collaboration with the organisations.Although the journey to a compromise was arduous, the controversy didn’t seem to bother Zhang Yiming too much. The man who’d started out as a programmer decided that it would be best to keep his focus on improving the product.It is not surprising then that nearly 50 percent of his staff comprises technical personnel.

"“The goal is to perfect our product though improving our technology,” he explains when talking about the future.When he started out, the goal for Zhang was to see his vision through to its logical conclusion. And what he’s learned over the years is that it takes not just creative thinking but also a qualified and dedicated team to ensure that dreams can come true."

2017-08-30

Video above published Aug 29, 2017, by Fortune.com: Best Buy (NYSE: BBY)(domain: bestbuy.com), the electronics retailer, has been steadily boosting sales and pleasing investors, BUT .... Best Buy: Well That's Peculiar | SeekingAlpha.com Aug 29, 2017: "Best Buy has just reported its Q2 earnings, and the initial reaction was positive but now shares are getting crushed ... We think the Street has this one wrong."

"The domain name base is the active zone plus the number of domain names that are registered but not configured for use in the respective Top-Level Domain zone file plus the number of domain names that are in a client or server hold status."--Verisign, Inc.

2017-08-28

Video published Aug 25, 2017: Fresh food is the one thing Americans have traditionally resisted buying online, but that may change with Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, which is expected to bring price cuts and a fresh food makeover. NBC.com’s Tom Costello reports for TODAY from a Whole Foods store in Bethesda, Maryland.

Amazon.com, Inc. $AMZN expects to close on its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods (domain: WholeFoodsMarket.com) on Monday, August 28, 2017, and plans to slash prices on popular items immediately after the closing.

In addition, Amazon and Whole Foods Market technology teams will begin to integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods Market point-of-sale system, and when this work is complete, Prime members will receive special savings and in-store benefits. The two companies will invent in additional areas over time, including in merchandising and logistics, to enable lower prices for Whole Foods Market customers.

Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer: “We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone. Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality – we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market’s long-held commitment to the highest standards. To get started, we’re going to lower prices beginning Monday on a selection of best-selling grocery staples, including Whole Trade organic bananas, responsibly-farmed salmon, organic large brown eggs, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, and more. And this is just the beginning – we will make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together. There is significant work and opportunity ahead, and we’re thrilled to get started.”

"Here’s what will be new in Whole Foods Market stores on Monday and what customers can expect over time as the two companies integrate:

In the future, after certain technical integration work is complete, Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market’s customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits.

Amazon Lockers will be available in select Whole Foods Market stores. Customers can have products shipped from Amazon.com to their local Whole Foods Market store for pick up or send returns back to Amazon during a trip to the store.

"This is just the beginning – Amazon and Whole Foods Market plan to offer more in-store benefits and lower prices for customers over time as the two companies integrate logistics and point-of-sale and merchandising systems.

"Whole Foods Market will continue to grow its team and create jobs in local communities as it opens new stores, hires new team members, and expands its support of local farmers and artisans. The company will maintain operations under the Whole Foods Market brand, preserve its high standards and commitment to providing the finest natural and organic foods, and continue to source from trusted vendors and partners around the world. John Mackey will remain as CEO and Whole Foods Market’s headquarters will stay in Austin, Texas." [source: Amazon Press Room - Press Release]

SIDN Labs and TU Delft deliver final report for ICANN study | sidnlabs.nl: "... An interesting finding of our study is a clear upward trend in the absolute number of phishing and malware domains in new gTLDs while these numbers remain relatively constant in legacy gTLDs. Also, we discovered that new gTLDs have affected the number of domains used for spam in legacy gTLDs: abused domains in new gTLDs do not increase the number of total malicious registrations. Instead we observe a shift from legacy gTLDs to new gTLDs. Our findings suggest that some new gTLDs have increasingly become a target for malicious actors. For example, Spamhouse blacklisted at least 10% of all registered domains in as many as 15 new gTLDs at the last quarter of 2016. See thereport[pdf] for more details ... We conducted the SADAG study for the Competition, Consumer Choice, and Consumer Trust Review Team. The CCT Review Team was established to review how the New gTLD Program impacts competition, consumer choice and consumer trust." (emphasis and links added)

2. New gTLDs are known to "fail to work as expected" on the internet--the so-called "Universal Acceptance" (UA) problem--which ICANN knew about long before (since at least 2003) it expanded the gTLDs from just 22 to over 1200 beginning in early 2014, which is why ICANN tried to absolve itself of liability--even though it has failed to warn consumers (registrants)--see Base Registry Agreement Section 1.2:

1.2 Technical Feasibility of String. While ICANN has encouraged and will continue to encourage universal acceptance of all top-level domain strings across the Internet, certain top-level domain strings may encounter difficulty in acceptance by ISPs and webhosters and/or validation by web applications. Registry Operator shall be responsible for ensuring to its satisfaction the technical feasibility of the TLD string prior to entering into this Agreement. (emphasis added)

3. Absolute unlimited monopolistic pricing powers granted to new gTLD registry operators, including the right to unlimited increases in domain name registration and renewal fees--ICANN and its "ICANN community" (which is effectively controlled by registry operators and registrars) rejected the recommendation and advice of the the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division to protect consumers (registrants). New gTLD Registry Operators are free to "rape and pillage" the global domain names marketplace and consumers (registrants) worldwide, thanks to ICANN.4. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has warned registrants to avoid new gTLDs due to ICANN's new gTLDs' flawed and overreaching RPMs.5. And now, theicing on ICANN's global malware cake,SIDN Labs and Delft University of Technology's report (pdf), characterizing new gTLDs as "phishing and malware domains."

This is what happens when you let special interests (a/k/a lobbyists) run internet governance via a governance model known as "multistakeholderism," limiting and excluding governments from their proper role in protecting the public interest. Add to that the dysfunctional ICANN organization which created for its new gTLDs, a new "Global Domains Division" (try to find any reference to that in the ICANN Articles or Bylaws), primarily staffed by incompetent cronies of ICANN's equally inept ex-CEO who quit 3½ years into a 5-year contract. As I've said before, ICANN has proven to be unfit for the purpose for which it was originally intended.

2)Names, Domains & Trademarks

• .COM Still King: 10 tips for choosing the perfect domain | SearchEngineLand.com August 22, 2017: "... 3. Go for a .COM [domain name]--If you are serious about building a long-term brand online, there is nothing better than a .com. Using a 301-redirect to drive traffic to a .net or .org is totally fine, but owning the .com or the equivalent TLD for your target market country is critical ..."

• Verisign: Warren Buffett's Stake In The Internet--"VeriSign [domain: verisign.com, NASDAQ: VRSN] is the manager of the .com and .net domain registers - they serve as a monopolistic gatekeeper to the Internet. There are three catalysts for this company's stock appreciation: pricing powers, the Internet's global expansion, and share buybacks. I believe this stock's long-term risk/reward ratio is greatly weighted towards reward ..."--SeekingAlpha.com Aug. 22, 2017.

• GoDaddy (domain: godaddy.com) (NYSE: GDDY) announced Tuesday that CEO Blake Irving would retire effective December 31, 2017, and Scott Wagner, GoDaddy President and COO, would assume the CEO role thereafter. Irving will continue to serve on GoDaddy's Board of Directors through June 2018.

• Ted Cruz, ICANN & NTIA: Ted Cruz should stop obstructing Trump’s [NTIA] nominee [David Redl] for telecom chief | rstreet.org by Joe Kane, Aug 22, 2017: "... Redl has been the subject of a largely unrelated fight waged by the junior senator from Texas over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority [IANA]. Cruz continues to raise objections about the now-completed transfer of stewardship of IANA functions from NTIA to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN]. ICANN is a private, nonprofit company ..." [Editor's note: Cruz has said he wants "assurances" from Redl, and frankly, I would have expected no less.]

• New gTLDs Reality Check: The Great Domain Correction of 2017? | pinkybrand.com: "... China. China is HARD. You will not be successful there, as a foreign registry operator, at a minimum, unless you understand that you will likely lose money or barely break even for several years and are prepared to deal with that reality. You must be in it for the long term. Long term, at a minimum, is 5 years of sweating it out (flying back and forth on a near monthly basis) before things *might* work out. Over the short to medium term the domain industry is likely to shed inefficient registry and registrar operators and investors, especially some of those who banked on new domain extensions (new gTLDs) that have no real consumer traction—which are many— and can no longer, or are just unwilling, to fund the basic holding/operating costs, let alone fund any marketing team or person. For sure there is an easily foreseen correction—if not outright registration numbers recession—going on right now for some in the domain industry ... This includes ICANN, that may need to shed some personnel as a result of what may be "The Great Domain Correction of 2017"..."

"We’re currently living in a time digital strategists have deemed the data wild west. The next decade the data policies set could determine the basis of digital rights for the foreseeable future."--TechCrunch.com

Inciting Violence vs Freedom of Speech | Namecheap.com: "... The real danger in my opinion is what lies invisible yet is the most dangerous force that anyone of us will ever know. That is the insidious and dangerous force of power. The power to control our thoughts, our privacy, our opinions and most importantly our speech that lies within the dark nature of absolute power itself and takes over seemingly well meaning politicians, presidents, governments, movements that then use this power against us. This is the real danger that we must all be watchful for ..."--Richard Kirkendall, Namecheap CEO

But caveat: Chromebooks will not move into business if they cannot be bought | ZDNet.com: "When it comes to Chromebooks, there are those available in the United States, and then there are those for the rest of the world ... It's a strange state of affairs when OEMs in Asia do not make a selection of their products available on their side of the Pacific, particularly when we are talking about the lower end of the market that has myriad configurations and models available otherwise. With such a haphazard approach, it seems the business push for Chromebooks is not wholehearted, which seems to be the pattern of many projects from Google."

Avoid Unintended Bets in Your Investment Portfolio | cfainstitute.org: “Be conscious what’s driving the risk in your portfolio ... Don’t tell me you underweight Apple without realizing that you are underweighting the technology sector without buying other tech stocks, or that you are making a size bet, or a bet against trends in consumer electronics. Those are all the implied bets when you underweight the largest name in your universe.”

After Brexit, the UK "owes" the EU for what?--After Article 50 was triggered to start Brexit, the European Investment Fund stopped backing UK VCs--Politico.com. So why shouldn't the UK just stop funding the EU now?

Starbucks Teaching Silicon Valley a Lesson in Tech: "... nearly a third of all Starbucks’ orders were paid for via the company’s phone app. The numbers are remarkable when you consider the Apple (AAPL) comparison. Today, even in stores where Apple Pay is available, barely anyone is using it ... only 5.5% of iPhone users actually choose the option, according to the latest research from Pymnts.com ..."--Barrons.com. Note: Starbucks--$SBUX--plans to have 37,000 stores worldwide by 2021, up from around 27,000 today. About 40% of those new stores will be in the U.S., and about 5,000 in the Asia-Pacific region.

Gmail tip: Gmail does not recognise a plus sign "+" in an email address or any words after it--"If your email address is inewsisgreat @gmail.com, emails sent to inewsisgreat+informative @gmail.com will also be received."--inews.co.uk. Same thing applies if you are using Google Apps email (G Suite) via your own custom domain name. The above tip allows you to categorize and sort incoming subscription, group, etc., emails before you have even read them.

2017-08-25

Video above published Aug 22, 2017: "Thank you to the entire Salesforce Ohana for an exciting Q2! We've been on an unimaginable adventure for 18 years. None of this is possible without our customers, our partners, our employees and all of our stakeholders. Together we are Salesforce. Check out all the highlights from Q2 and discover more at www.salesforce.com."

2017-08-23

Videos above and below published Aug 8, 2017: Disney $DIS Chairman and CEO Robert Iger discusses the decision to stop selling movies to Netflix $NFLX and begin offering ESPN sports programming and family films directly to consumers via two new streaming services. He speaks with David Westin on “Bloomberg Technology.”

Disney Is A Canary - Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) | SeekingAlpha.com: "... problem: The content cost per subscriber for Comcast (and Comcast-like entities) is much, much higher than for Netflix. It’s roughly 10x higher (~$207 per quarter per sub at Comcast, ~$19 per quarter per sub at Netflix) ... if the content industry was to let Netflix conquer the entire content-consuming market, the entire content industry would have to live on 1/10th the revenues. That’s not going to happen .... the price difference is anchored on much lower content costs which seem highly unsustainable." source: Statista.com

2017-08-22

Video published Aug 17, 2017, by Fortune.com: Bitcoin has been on a tear since the start of 2017. But according to Fortune’s Jen Wieczner, the cryptocurrency is due for a downturn. Supply and Demand, Hype and Scarcity.

A Primer on Cryptocurrency

Video above published Aug 17, 2017, by L2inc.com: By popular demand, Scott Galloway and Aswath Damodaran discuss topics in cryptocurrency, from why it's impossible to value, to why people choose Bitcoin over gold.

0:01 The number one requested topic among users of Winners and Losers is:
0:07 cryptocurrencies.
0:08 Aswath, tell us more about cryptocurrencies and how you price and/or value them.
0:13 The first thing is you cannot value currency. You can price them.
0:16 Real quick - difference between value and pricing.
0:21 The difference between value and pricing is value you try to estimate what you get as cashflow.
0:25 So when you value a business you project out what the business will generate as cash flow.
0:28 So you can value cash flow generating assets.
0:31 But gold, currencies, Bitcoin are not cash flow generating assets.
0:35 You ask me what the value of gold is.
0:37 I don't know but I can price gold and we price currencies relative to each other.
0:41 And that's, I think, the opening to think about cryptocurrencies and why they've risen so much over the last few years.
0:48 If you think about gold,
0:49 let's think about gold - the alternative to paper currencies for hundreds of years.
0:55 When people lost trust in paper currency because all you have is a piece of paper,
1:00 it's all based on trust.
1:02 Doesn't every fiat currency eventually collapse throughout history
1:05 Fiat currencies vary widely.
1:08 In France if you gave me a Venezuelan Bolivar I'm probably better off just using it as toilet paper than trying to spend it.
1:12 So when we talk about fiat currencies not all fiats are equally trustworthy.
1:17 So when we lose trust in currencies, we go elsewhere.
1:21 For the longest time the place we went was gold.
1:24 I think what's changed is for younger people the place they go when they don't trust paper currencies is now cryptocurrency.
1:31 But help me - I understand, theoretically as an old guy
1:36 you go to gold and it can be used for fillings or jewelry.
1:39 What is the underlying guarantee and limit of a cryptocurrency?
1:44 Let's face it, the people who bought gold didn't want to use it,
1:48 they wanted to sell it to somebody else at a higher price.
1:50 It's a pure pricing game. The reason people have historically bought gold is not because they think gold has a physical use
1:57 but because they think it'll have enough of a pricing attached to it that they can sell it to somebody at a higher price.
2:03 So it's the illusion that it's become a store of value.
2:05 Exactly.
2:06 Okay so help me price Bitcoin and Ethereum.
2:10 I think the key to think about is if you have enough of the population losing trust
2:15 because we lost trust in governments and central banks and who can blame people for losing trust in them
2:20 and if you're 35, 30 or 25, you have no interest in pricing gold and playing the gold game,
2:27 you actually think you have an inside track on playing the pricing game with Bitcoin
2:32 and one of the things that always strikes me when I talk to people in this space
2:37 who are cryptocurrency fanatics is they think they know more than they do.
2:41 They think they understand everything about block chains and who
2:44 owns what and where the pricing is going and that's always a piece of the pricing game:
2:48 people who are overconfident about the capacity to forecast price.
2:53 We don't need very many people for the pricing to kind of do what it's done
2:56 which is if four or five percent of the population has lost trust and is paranoid.
3:00 So Trump is the best thing to happen for cryptocurrencies.
3:05 Collectively, globally. You could argue that governments across the globe...
3:12 It's I think a problem.
3:13 So you think in any sort of crisis, more missile tests coming out of North Korea, cryptocurrencies similar to gold go up, people stick cryptocurrencies under the mattress.
3:22 In fact one of the most interesting things about this bull market is it's a very differentiated market.
3:27 Half the market thinks that everything is cheap,
3:30 the other half thinks everything is increased.
3:33 I've never seen a divide as large as I have in the market that we're in
3:36 which is between the Bulls and the Bears.
3:38 There's almost no connecting point and it's very political. It's more political than economic.
3:44 Tell me who you voted for in the last election, I can tell you whether you're bullish or bearish.
3:48 That's how much of a correlation there is between politics and what you think about the market now.
3:53 which is not a healthy place to be.
3:56 So I think that even though markets have been going up,
3:59 the subset of people who think that markets are overpriced is a fairly large one and it's very intense
4:04 and they believe this for three, four, five years and that's the group that's increasingly leaving stocks
4:11 and they're saying well I can't go to bonds, I'm getting 2%,
4:14 what am I going to put my money in where I can make some money in the future?
4:18 A 25 year old has a hundred bucks. Mock portfolio - just create an asset allocation for me and a 55 year old.
4:25 The tool is very simple: you want to spread your bets.
4:27 Time is your ally.
4:29 So the 25 year old, don't try to time the market, don't tell me the markets you know, too high, too low, it doesn't matter.
4:36 You've got 40 years to play this game, just take your money, make your asset allocation.
4:42 So you want a portfolio that looks like this.
4:45 If I took the market cap of every traded asset in the world put in a pie chart
4:48 I want the pie chart of your portfolio to look very much like that.
4:53 Diversification and low cost.
4:55 Exactly.
4:55 55 year old.
4:57 55 year old you gotta worry more about this,
4:59 especially about the fact that if you have a shock to the market you might not be able to make that money back before you need it for retirement.
5:06 So 55 you know, the first question I would ask is hey do you still have an income?
5:11 If you're already retired at 55 the kind of advice I'm going to give you is going to be very different
5:15 than you give a 55 year old with an income stream still coming from working
5:18 because let's face it, a lot of 55 year olds have 15 years of work life still left in them.
5:24 So I think that you've got to get more cautious,
5:27 but the old know once you get to be 65 everything's got to be in cash.
5:31 You got to rethink because a lot of 65 year olds are still making enough of an income
5:34 that they don't need to touch their portfolios yet.
5:37 So it really is a question of do you depend on your portfolio for your cash needs
5:41 and if the answer is yes
5:42 then I'm going to increasingly shift your weight from any kind of risky asset class
5:46 because there is no safe place in the world where you can put your money in, make an 8% return and still draw cash every year
5:53 and not worry about your principal being affected.
5:55 Thanks very much, Professor Aswath Damodaran.
5:58 And more information at Damodaran.com.

1) Is This The Last Round of ICANN New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation?UPDATE Sept 10, 2017: New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation--Plaintiff DCA (DotConnectAfrica Trust) Survives ICANN's Motion for Summary Judgment--"ICANN's motion for summary judgment is denied as to the second, third, fourth, fifth, and tenth causes of action. The motion is granted as to the remaining causes of action."[p.10] [Dated Aug 9, 2017](emphasis added)."

Apparently ICANN expects to lose one-fourth of all registrars in FY18 (ending June 2018)

b. ICANN At-Large Community / At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC): "This fully updated Final Report contains a list of recommendations which Reviewers believe reflect the needs of At-Large Community and for which there is sufficient community consensus. There were some cases where agreement with the current At-Large leadership was not reached, but which Reviewers strongly believe need to be implemented in the interests of the At-Large Community and the ICANN organisation as a whole."--Review of the ICANN At-Large Community Final Report (pdf), 2 May 2017, p.6. Is "current leadership" the core problem inside ALAC?

c. Where to Search UDRP Decisions | circleid.com: "Unfortunately, there is no longer an official, central repository of all UDRP decisions that is freely available online." [Editor's note: ICANN created the UDRP (note the broken links on that ICANN webpage), but no longer keeps a central repository of UDRP decisions for quality control oversight and review for consistency, education of trademark and domain name registrants, etc.ICANN would rather pay bloated salaries and benefits to the inept cronies* of ICANN ex-CEO Fadi Chehade and his "sidekick" ICANN Global Domains President Akram Atallah, rather than spend money doing its job competently for the global internet community. What would it take for ICANN to do its job properly in this regard? Just one lawyer who could work remotely from his/her home, provided ICANN required all UDRP providers to file their decisions electronically via a searchable, sortable, ICANN database interface.]

*IoNmag.asia: "only one member of the C-suite hired since [ICANN CEO] Chehade came on board has not been a friend or former co-worker [of Chehade and Atallah] ... Every new vice president based in the Los Angeles headquarters has been a friend or former co-worker. Frustrated with the community intransigence, Chehade hired from within the community to deal with the community, while his group in Los Angeles became increasingly separated from the broader organization and began to think of themselves as almost a separate company." (emphasis added)

d. Quote of the week:

"I'm sure quite a lot of "professional" analysis and discourse has led to serious errors of policy at ICANN. I'm sure a lot of professionals made predictions about new gTLDs and appropriate strategies, for themselves and their clients, all now proven wrong. Many folks lost money, time, and careers due to those mistakes, betting the wrong way. They're looking for a new direction, superior analysis, and better solutions than those of the past ... I think the evidence-based policy making (as opposed to the flawed policymaking at ICANN that got us here, which was based on incorrect conjectures and weak analysis) will ultimately lead us in the right direction."--George Kirikos [gnso-rpm-wg] (emphasis added)

"This is Greg [Greg Shatan, WS2 Jurisdiction SubGroup Rapporteur]. If I could just respond first, we have not yet reached the discussion of the path forward proposal. We will get to it after this discussion. I'd like on see if anybody else agrees with Thiago's [Thiago Braz Jardim Oliveira, Brazilian diplomat, member of GAC] world view of the group. I find it a conspiracy theory and I don't indulge in conspiracy theories and but everyone is entitled to their opinion and worldview, just not entitled to their own facts"(emphasis added). Listen to the Adobe Connect Video Replay or mp3 audio for more.

Discontinued Domains & Price Changes | Namecheap.com Blog: "... we do have to discontinue support of TLDs [top-level domains] from time to time. Some of our TLDs currently face significant price increases from the registry. As a result, we have decided to discontinue the sale of these [new gTLD] domains to protect our customers." (emphasis added) [Editor's note: don't look to ICANN for any consumer (registrant) protection, inept ICANN is the source of the problem.]

And Namecheap is not alone--GoDaddy also drops Uniregistry new gTLDs' domain names--"GoDaddy strives to provide its customers with great product experiences wherever possible. After careful consideration, we decided to stop offering new Uniregistry [new gTLD] domain names for sale because their pricing changes caused frustration and uncertainty with our customers."--Mike McLaughlin, EVP & GM, Domains, GoDaddy Inc., as reported in DomainNameWire.com, August 18, 2017.

Gold a safe haven?"... from July 1997 to September 1998, when the Asian financial crisis brought devaluations to half a dozen countries, the Russian ruble collapsed, and hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management was bailed out. Far from gaining from safe-haven flows, the yellow metal fell 13 percent ...."--Bloomberg.com

How aboutBitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies?: "99% of Cryptocurrencies are total scams. And, yes, Cryptocurrencies are in a bubble .... there's a lot of hype and scammers out there [Editor's note: sounds just like ICANN and the new gTLDs' hucksters in 2014]. We've seen this story at least twice before in past 20 years and many people have gotten hurt ..."--James Altucher | LinkedIn.com [Editor's note: Altucher goes on to note one can make money if you can identify which cryptocurrencies are legitimate and then successfully trade on the "volatility" in pricing--a challenging feat for most investors. You've Been Warned!]